Disruption Is the New Normal

After Google Maps added navigation, the value of stand-alone GPS makers fell by as much as 85%.

By

L. Gordon Crovitz

Jan. 5, 2014 6:30 p.m. ET

On a trip over the holidays, my wife rolled her eyes when I realized we'd left the Garmin at home and said we'd have to get a GPS for the rental car. She pointed to the Google Maps app on her mobile phone and said: "I bet this works even better." It did. We benefited from the kind of technological disruption that is great for consumers, but brutal for businesses trying to survive rapid change and perhaps impossible for government regulators trying to keep up.